WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Question: I need some assistance in cleaning up my very poor credit score of 638 from Trans Union and 559 from Equifax. It's not the result of any credit cards but poor choices (which I admit) and a divorce with little to no child support of three girls. I'm in my mid-forties and all three girls are over the age of 18.

Answer: I turned to attorney Edward Jamison, who operates a credit-repair law firm in Los Angeles, for help with this one because you did not mention any specific problems.

Muskogee County District Court

Shannon Field vs. Jerry L. Field, incompatibility.

Are You Leaving Your Identity Behind at the Copy Machine?

You've probably made copies of your tax forms, your driver's license or legal documents thinking you'd put them away in a filing cabinet and no one else would ever see them. Think again. These days, many digital copy machines have hard drives. If someone knows what they're doing, they can get their hands on your personal information and steal your identity.

We caught Stacy Piggee on her way to make some copies of personal court documents. "It's a little mind blowing," she said. "You never think about what your copying, think that something else is holding onto it."

Like most people we talked to, she had no idea digital copiers have hard drives. And thinking back on all the things she's copied she got a little concerned. "I've had to make copies of my income tax return, things dealing with my divorce, I mean it has my social on it," she told us.

Title insurance best proof of ownership

DEAR BOB: We just finished building a house on our lot. We paid the builder cash. Do we need to obtain a deed to the house? The builder says we do not get a deed because we already have clear title to the land and the house is just an improvement to our lot. We have releases of liens from all the subcontractors. Our builder says it will cost us $2,000 to $3,000 to get a title clearance for a deed. Our custom home builder lives in the neighborhood and has been in business for several years, following in his father's footsteps. He enjoys a wonderful reputation. -- John and Mary H.

DEAR JOHN AND MARY: If you have an owner's title insurance policy for your land, that is your best assurance you really own the property, including the new house built on it. If you don't have an owner's title policy, buy one from a title insurer.

Letters to the Editor

The risk of accepting checks for any financial institutionI am a supervisor at a credit union and after reading your Aug. 6 article, "Unwary consumers duped by counterfeit check scams," I am glad to know that the message of check scams and fraud is getting to the public. Every day I receive countless bad checks and encounter several victims and predators. I have seen everything from US Treasury checks being counterfeited to forged checks. .

Rural education 2.0

The man in the Sodbuster Bar walks with a slight limp, the result of old injury.

"I was operating a seismograph rig when it went off a hillside outside Meeteetse, Wyo.," he says. "It fell 382 feet with me inside. I wasn't supposed to make it, but I did. I eventually got a settlement. Made a lot of lawyers rich in the process, though."

The bar is in Springfield, the seat of Baca County. Tucked away in the southeast corner of Colorado, the county is much more closely aligned, both in politics and soul, with Oklahoma or the Texas panhandle than with Colorado Springs. It's flat, windy "tomorrow country," as in, "OK, things are tough, but they'll get better tomorrow."

It's the kind of place where used farm equipment is a prized lawn ornament.

In 2004, Baca County ranked as one of the 50 poorest counties in the nation, both in adjusted gross income and in wages.